Psalm 118. I titled this, The Gate and the
Stone. We have in these verses gates,
the gates of righteousness. We have a gate by which the righteous
enter. We have a stone that's rejected
and yet exalted. We have a day that's of the Lord. And we have the Lord's doing
it. This is the Lord's doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes. The gospel day, this day of grace,
It truly is marvelous, wonderful in our eyes that sinners like
you and me can enter into the presence of God and worship Him
in spirit and in truth. That's marvelous, isn't it? It's marvelous that God would
allow a wretch like me and you to come into His presence. And
that He is the One who made the way. He made the way. He made the way through His own
Son. He made the way by His grace. And He has allowed us to come
in and worship. And this is what this has to
do, this gate, this gate of righteousness. It speaks of gates as plural,
and then it speaks of a gate singular. and speaks of a stone. And it's because of these that
you and I are allowed to come into his presence. And this has
to do with worship. This has to do with worship.
You know, our God is worthy of, and it just, the words seem so
weak. When I want to say he's so worthy
of our worship, but that just seems, So weak, such a weak statement. I mean, God is so high and so
great and so marvelous and so holy. God is to be worshipped. We ought to stand in awe of Him.
That's the word I'm searching for. We ought to stand in awe
of God Almighty. to stand in awe of His grace
and His mercy to us. And that ought to be daily, not
just when we come in these doors. But we ought to get out of bed
in the morning and stand in awe that God Almighty has thought
upon us. He's thought upon me, He's thought
upon you, and He keeps us by His grace. My, my, my. Now, He says here in verse 19,
Open to me the gates of righteousness, and I will go into them, and
I will praise the Lord." Now, it's evident by this statement
that the gates of righteousness are closed. That's the first
thought that hit me when I read this. When he says, open to me
the gates of righteousness, it's evident those gates, first of
all, are closed. You know, there were 12 gates
around Jerusalem, three on each side, and they had the name of
the tribe, they were the names of Israel, the tribes of Israel,
and they were around those gates. And only the righteous, the Lord's
people, were allowed to just enter in. But it's evident here by the
request that these gates are closed, and here's why. To keep
out those who would defile that place. Only righteousness is allowed
in God's presence. You say, but I thought sinners
were allowed in His presence. They are allowed in His presence
through the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We are not allowed
in His presence apart from His righteousness. Yes, we are allowed
in His presence as sinners, as sinful men and women, but we
are in His presence by the righteousness of His Son, Jesus Christ. And these gates are to keep out
those who don't belong there. You know, there are some people
who don't belong there. There are some people who don't belong
in heaven. I was reading this today, over in Revelation 22.15
and verse 14, it's speaking about the New Jerusalem. And it says,
without those gates, it says, without our dogs, sorcerers,
whoremongers, murderers, idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh
alive, these shall not enter in." These are not a part of
that city. Well, you say, but we were these at one time. You're right at one time. Paul
said, and such were some of you, but you're washed. That's not
you anymore. That's not you. You're washed.
You're cleansed. being cleansed by the blood of
Christ. You're not whoremongers anymore. You know, when Paul
said, O wretched man that I am, he was right. But he didn't live
like a wretch anymore. You know, there's a real difference
in being a wretch and living like a wretch. You don't live like wretches
anymore. You did. But you know this. You know by
nature, you know by nature that you're a wretch. O wretched man
that I am. You know, Rahab the harlot was
always called what? Rahab the harlot, all the way
through the Bible. But she didn't continue to be a harlot, did
she? Absolutely not. She didn't live like that no
more. Not anymore. But those who live like that,
those who are whoremongers and murderers and adulterers, those
whose lives are like that, they don't belong there. The gates
of righteousness is not for them. It's for the righteous. Those
who've been made righteous in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let's apply this to David
first, and then we'll apply it to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
most everyone I read, the ones that I do read, believe David
wrote this, and he's coming up to the gate, you know, the gates
of the city. He's coming up to the gates.
He's been out to battle. And he has this procession behind
him. Those who have been with him,
they followed him, they've won the victory. And he comes up
to the gate and he cries out, open to me the gates. This is
one who has authority. He commands, he said, open to
me the gates of righteousness. I will go into them. I'm not
gonna try to, I will go into them. Look back in verse 10. This is why I said he was out
to battle, and he's come back having won the victory. "'All
nations compass me about, but in the name of the Lord will
I destroy them. They compass me about, yea, they compass me
about. They have surrounded me, all the nations hate me.'" All
nations of this world hate God's people. That's not an overstatement. They hate Christ. and they hate
His people. Christ said, if they hated Me,
they'll hate you. When you tell the truth on Jesus
Christ, when you present and speak of the Christ of this book,
as He's revealed in this book, it'll bring out the hatred in
human nature, because human nature has a natural enmity to God,
and it'll come out when you give Him the glory. It'll come out. He says here, they compassed
me about, yea, they compassed me about, but in the name of
the Lord I will destroy them. They compassed me about like
bees, like bees. They are quenched as the fire
of thorns, for in the name of the Lord will I destroy them.
Three times he makes different statements throughout this psalm,
and he'll make it three different times. Thou hast thrust sword
at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord
helped me. The Lord's my strength. He's
my strength, He's my song, and He's become my salvation. And
the voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tabernacles of the
righteous. It's in their homes. The right hand of the Lord doth
valiantly. The right hand of the Lord is exalted. The right
hand of the Lord doth valiantly. I'll not die, but live, and declare
the works of the Lord. And now in verse 18, He's coming
up to the gate, to the city. And here's what he wants to do.
When he says, open to me the gates of righteousness, he wants
to go in to the city and go to where the tabernacle is, go to
the outer court in there where they offer the sacrifice. He
wants to go and worship. and give the Lord the praise
for the victory that He has accomplished, for the battles He's won. He's
going to give God the praise. He's not going to go in and take
His throne and say, look at me. He's going to go in and worship.
He's going to go in and praise God. Praise God for the victories
is what He's going to do. Now let's apply this to the Lord
Jesus Christ. To really get the spiritual application
of this request, We have to apply it to Christ because this is
a Messianic psalm. And here's what I thought of
when I was looking at this, and I looked and looked and looked
at this several times. Our Lord came into this world
to do battle, to do battle with Satan and all the forces of darkness. He came into this world to satisfy
justice by His own obedience, by His own suffering, by His
own death. That's what He came to do. He
came into this world to bring in and establish an everlasting
righteousness for me and you. We need to think much. of God's
righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, because
He does. We should always think much of
what He thinks much of, and He thinks much of righteousness.
The righteous Lord loves righteousness. That's what it says. He loves
righteousness. And so He came in and He established
an everlasting righteousness. He came in to make an end of
sin and death. Death? Where is your sting? Where's
your victory? Where is it? Grave? Where's yours?
Where's your victory at, old grave? Where is it? The Lord
took it away. Our king, our king took it away
by his own sacrifice, by his own death, by his own blood.
He gave death its death blow. That's what he did at Calvary.
He did this by his sacrifice and by his death and by his rising
again from the grave and ascending on high and leading captivity
captive. You and I at one time were captives to sin and Satan to ourselves,
but he led captivity captive. The forerunner has gone back
to heaven and entered in and taken possession of heaven for
us, that you and I can now enter into God's holy presence, the
holy of holies. We can go into the holy of holies.
There was, I said, there was 12 gates around Jerusalem, three
on each side, 12 gates. There was one gate into the courtyard
of the tabernacle. There was one door into the tabernacle. And then there was one veil,
which was the Holy of Holies. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
taken us within the veil. He has brought the Holy Nation,
that peculiar people, right into the Holy of Holies, right into
God's presence. Brethren, we are in God's presence
right now. Not just here because God is
omnipresent, but we are actually in His presence in glory. That's amazing. We need, you
know, from time to time, we need to think out of the box. We need
to, sometimes I tell people they need to get out of the house. We need to understand and live
not just in this world, but in that world to come, in that world
not only to come, but in that world that is. That world is
right now. It's as real as this one. It's
as real as this one. And our Lord came into this world
to do battle and to establish righteousness and to put an end
of sin and death and lead captivity captive, and He's entered into
glory and take possession of heaven for us. And there, now, we may enter
in. We may enter in. It says in Revelation 21-12,
let's turn over there, because there's a few verses before that
you probably need to read. In Revelation 21, let me find
the verses I want to read with this. Let me start in verse 9. And
there came unto me one of the seven angels, which had the seven
vows full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come
hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. And he
carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain,
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, and her light
was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone clear
as crystal, and had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates,
and at the gates twelve angels. you know, at the gates of Jerusalem
with the Levites, and they would open those gates and shut them,
and they did the services, did the tabernacle at first. They
were the ones who would break it down, and when they moved,
all of them had different sections they would deal with, and then,
of course, when they built the temple and then there in Jerusalem,
they helped the priest with all the services and guarding these
gates. And here, listen, and had walls
great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve
angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel. But I can hear the Lord, I can
hear the Lord, as He rose from the grave, and He ascended on
high, saying, Open to me the gates. Those angels that guarded
those gates said, Open to me the gates, the gates of righteousness. Open them to me. And as it applies to us, it says
in Revelation 22, 14, Blessed are they that do His commandments,
that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in
through the gates into the city. We have entrance, is what it's
saying. We have entrance into the Holy Jerusalem. It says in Isaiah 26, 2, "...open
ye the gates, that the righteous nation, which keepeth the truth,
may enter in." It's open to us. Heaven is open to us. It's open
to us. And you know how it's opened
to us? I mean, I've already given you the answer and you know it,
I know you do. But here, it's opened to us through
a single gate. Verse 20, this gate of the Lord,
you see, it said, open the gates of righteousness. Now it says,
this gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter, this
gate by which the righteous enter is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. He is the gate. He is our entrance
into heaven. He is our entrance into the presence
of God. This gate by which the righteous
enter is Christ. Listen, John 10, 7, Then said
Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am
the door of the sheep. I'm the door. I'm the gate. In another place, it says, straight
is the gate and narrows the way. He is that straight gate and
narrow way. That straight gate and narrow
way is a person. In John 10, 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. In
John 14, he says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. This gate of the Lord into which
the righteous shall enter is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is
Him. And the purpose for the gates
of righteousness and this gate, the Lord Jesus Christ, by which
we enter in, this reason or this purpose for it being opened is
this, I will praise Thee, that we might worship God in spirit
and in truth. You know that only those, only
those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, only them, those,
are the ones who truly worship God and nobody else. Nobody else
on this earth worships God but them. Nobody. I don't care how
religious they are, It doesn't matter how many these churches
around here, I don't care what names they go by, if they believe
not on the Lord Jesus Christ that's revealed in the pages
of this book, they do not worship God. They do not worship God. Now we go from a gate, we go
from gates, by which the righteous enter to a gate, by which the
righteous enter to a stone." A stone. You see, now the gate
is spoken of as a stone. And it's spoken of as a stone
because of its strength, because of His strength and firmness
and duration. He's the stone. You know, Christ
is everything to the believer. He's the gate by which we enter.
He's the stone by which the building is being built. He's our high
priest. He's our advocate. He's our mediator.
He's everything to us. He's our all-in-all before God. Now he says in verse 22, The
stone which the builders refused is become the headstone of the
corner. Now we know this is Messianic,
we know this speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ because our Lord
quoted this in Matthew 21, 42. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye
never read in the Scriptures? The stone which the builders
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. This
is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. It's quoted in Mark, it's quoted
in Luke, and in Acts chapter 4. This is quoted like four or
five times. This is the stone cut out of
the mountain without hands spoken of in Daniel chapter 2. It speaks
of a stone being cut out of the mountain without the works of
men's hands. Christ is not of men. This stone
was not laid by men, it's laid by God. It's laid by God. It was laid by God before the
world began. This is the chief cornerstone
spoken of in Isaiah 28, 16. He's the tridestone, the chief
cornerstone. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's the shepherd called to stone. over in Genesis 49, 24. But his
bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong
by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence is the
shepherd, the stone of Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
first mention of this stone is the rejection of it. It's the
rejection of it. It says, the builders refused.
The stone which the builders refused." What an indictment!
What an indictment! He's still being refused by most
of them today. You take the vast part of what
is called Christianity, and they refuse that stone that God laid. They refuse the Lord Jesus Christ
as He's revealed in the Scriptures. It is written in the Scriptures,
He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. There in
John chapter 1. They turned thumbs down on Him, wanted nothing to
do with Him. In Isaiah 53, He is despised
and rejected of men. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world, this stone that was laid of God, The world didn't
know Him. The world turned on Him. The
Jews turned on Him. His own people turned on Him.
Everybody turned on Him, except for those whom He saved. And
if He doesn't save me or you, we'll turn on Him. We won't have
anything to do with Him either. The builders here, though, were
the Jews. They were the ones who should have recognized Him.
They read His Word. They read His Word day after
day after day, and when He came, they rejected Him. They're called the builders,
the Pharisees, the leaders of the country. You know, it's one
thing if the poor and illiterate didn't, you know, if they rejected
Him, you might have some excuse, but the learned, the ones who
are supposed to be educated, Nicodemus, you're a ruler of
the Jews and you don't know these things? That's what the Lord
said to him. The builders. The builders. Do you know how many people followed
them? Do you know how many followed those Pharisees, and the elders,
and their instructors, and their teaching, and they just wound
up in hell? The builders. They rejected the
stone. They looked at that stone and
they said, this is not fit to build with. This stone's not
fit to build on. And they just got rid of it. It's like, get rid of this stone. And they thought they did. When
they crucified him, they thought they got rid of him. They thought,
well, that's the end of him. No, no, that's just, that's,
no, you ain't seen nothing yet. You haven't seen nothing yet.
You didn't get rid of him. They rejected him outright as
their king and as their Messiah. We will not have this man to
reign over us. They were embarrassed of him.
They said, Pilate, don't put over there a king of the Jews.
But he said that. We didn't say that. We don't
own him as king. We reject him. But now that God made him the
headstone of the corner, God has highly exalted this stone. You know right now that the Lord
Jesus Christ, that man that was crucified about 2,000 years ago,
you know that man in the flesh is seated at God's right hand.
And that man is ruling and reigning over heaven and earth. And that
man is bringing everything to pass that God Almighty has purposed. And God has turned everything
over to that man. That man. And every knee is going
to bow. And every tongue is going to
confess. Whether you confess him in faith or not, you're going
to bow. I promise you on God's Word,
every person in this room and every person on this earth is
going to bow to Jesus Christ. And they're going to confess
Him as Lord whether they like it or not. I like it. I thank God He's given me a heart
to do it now. But I'm telling you, every person,
every human being is going to bow to Jesus Christ. And they're going to acknowledge
Him as Lord. Lord. And He's the headstone
of the corner. He has the chief place of honor.
Listen to Ephesians 2.20. And are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the
chief cornerstone. The whole building of God, the
whole temple of God in which He's going to dwell, Jesus Christ
is the chief cornerstone of that building. He has the chief place,
the chief honor in that building. And that house is being built
on that cornerstone. Over in Acts 2.36 it says, Therefore
let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made
that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Both Lord and Messiah. The appointed Messiah. God did that. Not men. This is a stone cut out of the
mountains without the work of men's hands. This is of God. That's what it says here in verse
23. This is the Lord's doing. This choosing the stone, this
laying the stone, this cornerstone is the Lord's doing. Thou hast
prepared for me, He said, a body. God made Him a body in which
to sacrifice, in which to keep the law in, and to sacrifice
and to shed His blood for. This is the Lord's doing. When
you look at Jesus Christ, this is the Lord's doing. There's
a man seated at God's right hand. This is the Lord's doing. This
is His doing. And it's marvelous in our eyes.
We wouldn't have done it that way. You know how we would do
it? By works. That's exactly how we'd do it. We'd try to build another tower
to heaven, or some other way we would try to work our way
there. We would never, ever come up with salvation by grace alone,
in Christ alone. We would never come up with salvation
as God Almighty becoming a man, a substitute and taking our place,
suffering and dying under the curse of His own law, rising
again, sending back to heaven, interceding for us. That's marvelous. The way of
salvation is marvelous. Listen, it's marvelous in our
eyes. Is it marvelous in your eyes? Is it really marvelous
in my eyes? Is it really? What he is saying
here in verse 23 is salvation is of the Lord, from its beginning,
its inception to its completion. And Christ crucified is at the
heart of it all. And last of all, verse 24, this
is the day This is the day which the Lord
hath made. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. This is the gospel day. Aren't
you glad this gospel day? You know, I'm glad I wasn't born
3000 years ago. I'm glad I wasn't born when the
vast part of the whole human race was left in darkness. I'm glad I'm born today, a day
of grace, a day of the gospel, the day the gospel goes out to
the Gentile world. You know, most of our ancestors
didn't have it. They didn't have it. They were
dancing around the fires or doing something stupid, but they didn't
have the gospel. But now we have it. Now we have
it. This is the day which the Lord
hath made. He's made this day. And you know what? We're going
to rejoice and be glad in it. We're going to get up in the
morning, whatever the day brings, we're going to rejoice and be
glad in it because it's a gospel day. It's a day of grace. I don't
know what tomorrow will bring, but I tell you what, I have every
reason under the sun to get up in the morning and rejoice and
be glad in the whole day. and then go to bed and thank
the Lord for it. And do each day that way until He comes and
gets me. Well, I hope you got something
out of that. I hope I was able to glorify
Christ in it. And if I did, if I glorified
Christ in it, you got something out of it. If you're His sheep,
I know you did. I've learned that the way to
feed the sheep is to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. to magnify
him. If you do that, the sheep are
fed.